


Knight in (a) Shining Arm(our)

by cazmalfoy



Series: Tony's Bodyguard [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, M/M, Post-Iron Man, Winter Soldier as a Separate Personality, protective winter soldier, winteriron
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-20
Updated: 2018-10-20
Packaged: 2019-08-04 19:58:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16353275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cazmalfoy/pseuds/cazmalfoy
Summary: Tony didn't know how long he had been held hostage by the Ten Rings, but he did know that he had a plan to escape.He was going to make a suit and burn the place to the ground.Then the cavalry arrived and it all went to hell.For the Ten Rings.





	Knight in (a) Shining Arm(our)

**Author's Note:**

> This is set in an alternate universe where Howard found Bucky/The Winter Soldier years ago, and enlisted his help to protect Tony.
> 
> The Starks weren't killed by the Winter Soldier, either.

Tony didn’t remember how long he had been there. Trapped in a cave in fuck-knows-where, with the threat of constant death at the hands of his own weapons looming over him.

The Ten Rings thought that he didn’t speak the language; that the words he had been threatened with were masked by a barrier, to be only-half translated by Yinsen at a later moment in an attempt to spare Tony the fear and knowledge that he was going to die.

They had no way of knowing that Tony Stark had been taught to speak Russian as a pre-teen and, under the tutelage of the same teacher, had learnt over the intervening years to speak a myriad of other languages. 

Really, translating the Arabic slurs into English in his head was as easy to Tony as breathing.

“Do you have family back home, Stark?” Yinsen asked, his voice soft enough to not be overheard despite the cameras in the corner not being equipped with audio listening technology. 

It wasn’t the first time Yinsen had asked a deeply personal question, but it _was_ the first time Tony had paused to actually consider the answer instead of being sarcastic in response.

“It’s complicated,” he eventually answered, giving no further explanation even as he sunk further into his own thoughts. 

He didn’t have traditional family; that biological ship had sailed a long time ago when Howard and Maria Stark had passed away suddenly seventeen years earlier.

Instead, Tony had a family he had chosen for himself. A fire-cracker of a Personal Assistant, a loyal puppy of a driver, his Rhodey-Bear, and his bloodhound body guard who was so much more than that.

The thought of the four of them was what had been driving Tony to get out of the cave alive. He owed it to all of them to live and become a better man that the bastard they had all been putting up with for too long.

Days after Yinsen’s question, Tony had almost fully decided on what he needed to do in order to get out of the cave alive. The palladium in his chest had been doing a good job of powering his heart for an acceptable amount of time now. He was ready.

The plans he had drawn up had needed to be done covertly, obviously. It wouldn’t do either of them any good for Raza to realise that Tony was building something _other_ than the Jericho missile he had been ordered to construct.

Tony had been minutes away from starting the project proper when everything had gone to hell.

For the Ten Rings.

Tony had just given instructions to Yinsen on what he would need the next time their guards swung by when they heard gunshots coming from the other side of the cell door.

Yinsen started in surprise and fear at the sound, but Tony just grinned to himself.

_About time._

Wordlessly in case he was wrong, Tony gently urged Yinsen back and away from the door. It would do neither of them any good to be caught in the inevitable blast that would shortly happen if Tony was right about who their knight in literal shining armour was.

Just as Tony had expected, when the gunfire stopped they had a few moments of silence before an explosion rocked the cave and they were showered in a cloud of dust.

Beside him, Yinsen let out a low curse and dove into a rapid fire prayer, but Tony couldn’t stop the grin spreading across his face.

Like the dramatic little bitch that he was and would never admit to, a figure slowly moved through the smoke and debris. The light coming from behind made him look like a monster; six feet of solid mass, covered from head to toe in weaponry.

Showing no fear, Tony stepped away from Yinsen and headed over to their rescuer. The lower half of his face was covered in a black mask, and his eyes were lined with their usual kohl, but Tony could still spot the relief and twitch of a smile.

Tony Stark was alive and the Winter Soldier was there to take him home.

“Took you long enough,” Tony quipped, the corners of his mouth twitching up in a smile as he drew closer.

Winter didn’t verbally respond - the mask muffled his speech at the best of times - but rolled his eyes at Tony’s attempts at humour. He jerked his head back, indicating to the area behind him and Tony got the point quickly.

There were more where the others had come from and they didn’t have long to get out.

Not that Tony had any intention in sticking around. He took a step forward before freezing and coming to a stop once more.

Winter raised an eyebrow at him, but Tony just held up his index finger and ran back to the workbench. The plans he had spent hours pouring over were too valuable to leave lying in a cave for anyone to see.

Tony had never had an aversion to carrying a weapon - he was the Merchant of Death, after all - but when Winter handed him an automatic hand gun, he paused for a moment. Memories of what his own weapons had done to him swirled around his thoughts, stopping him from functioning for a few seconds.

He recovered quickly and shoved those thoughts to the side. He may have designed the guns, but it didn’t mean that he had pulled the trigger. He was innocent.

Maybe if he repeated the words often enough, he might actually believe them.

Winter caught his gaze and Tony knew him well enough to recognise the question in those blue eyes. _Are you ready for this?_

Tony nodded firmly. “Come on, Yinsen, we’re going home.”

The Soldier started a little as though he had forgotten that there was anyone else in the room with him. Tony hoped Winter didn’t argue about saving Yinsen as well; he really didn’t want to get into a fight within ten minutes of reuniting.

Winter, however, didn’t comment at all - either verbally or otherwise. Instead, he turned on his heel and stalked from the cave, knowing instinctively that Tony would follow him now that he could.

Tony flashed a grin over his shoulder at Yinsen as they followed Winter at a slower pace, sticking to the shadows in case they encountered more Ten Rings minions on their way. Occasionally Winter would hold his hand up and they would all stop, before continuing when the coast was confirmed clear.

They were almost at the edge of the cave - Tony could barely see for the bright light coming from the sun he hadn’t seen for too long - when gunshots sounded behind them and something hit the ground beside Tony.

Winter reacted to the sound faster than Tony - his soldier reflexes kicking in before the other man had realised there was a body at his feet. 

Raza had a shit-ton of rubble on top of him before he could even blink, but Tony didn’t notice. Yinsen was dead, staring up at him with dull accusatory eyes.

Tony didn’t move, couldn’t even twitch a muscle under the weight of that stare. He stayed where he was until he felt Winter place a hand on his shoulder and squeeze gently. 

When he finally did look up he saw something in Winter’s eyes that hadn’t been there before. The ghost of a young sergeant that had been buried to let the Soldier complete his mission.

Tony didn’t need to hear the words that had to have been mentally projected his way. He knew they were right. They needed to get to safety; it would have been what Yinsen wanted.

He took a deep breath and nodded his head, silently indicating that he was fine and they could carry on. He wasn’t fine and wouldn’t be for a long time, but if there was one thing Tony Stark was good at, it was hiding his feelings and ignoring his emotions.

They made it the rest of the way without incident. Everyone was either dead or in hiding from the mad man who had come to rescue their hostage.

At the entrance, the Winter Solider paused to let Tony take in a large breath of fresh air before he led him over to where his sand-mobile was parked, hidden away behind a particularly large cache of Stark Industries weapons.

Winter climbed onto the mobile and revved the engine as he waited for Tony to follow suit. He raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment when Tony grabbed a weapon from the pile and slung it over his back, before straddling the sand-mobile behind Winter, wrapping his arms tightly around the other man’s waist.

The second Tony was secured against his back, Winter threw the vehicle into gear and they were tearing away from the scene. They only drove for minutes but it was enough that the sand whipped against Tony’s face and he had to screw his eyes closed to stop dirt getting into them. He might also had pressed his face against Winter’s neck, but there was no way anyone could prove it.

Tony opened his eyes as they slowed to a stop and he saw that they were at the top of a sand dune, overlooking the Ten Rings camp.

Winter shut off the engine and Tony climbed off the vehicle, paying no mind to his saviour for now. He had one last bit of unfinished business with the camp.

With the weapon he had taken from the cache and easily recalling the training Winter had given him as a teenager, Tony lined up his target and pulled the trigger.

Together they watched as a rocket shot from the launcher, sailed through the air and destroyed millions of dollars worth of weaponry with a heat so intense Tony could feel it from where he was stood.

Satisfied that the immediate danger had passed, Tony turned in time to see Winter climb off the sand-mobile and pull the mask away from his face.

“I’ve been looking everywhere for you, _malen'kiy narushitel' spokoystviya_ ,” Winter chided softly.

Tony pouted as though he was offended, but in truth the affection in the tone made warmth return to his chest. Winter had been calling him a troublemaker for as long as Tony could remember and it felt good to be reminded that nothing had changed with the older man.

Winter took a calculated step forward, making sure the action was sudden enough to spook the other. Tony knew that the decision to make the next move was on him; there was no way Winter would ever force Tony to do something that made him uncomfortable.

Not that Tony could ever be uncomfortable around the Winter Soldier.

“I’m sorry,” Tony whispered, wrapping his arms around Winter and burying his face in the taller man’s shoulder. 

There was a moment of hesitation before a pair of arms wrapped around him, holding him tight against his body. “You have nothing to be sorry about, Doll,” a Brooklyn accented voice whispered against his hair. “I’m the one who failed ya’.”

When Tony looked up, he found himself staring into the brilliant blue eyes of James Barnes; Winter having relinquished control of their shared body now that the mission was complete.

Before Tony could ask what he was talking about, James continued, “When your dad rescued us from Hydra… We made a promise to him that we’d protect you and we failed.”

If the electromagnet hadn’t been powering Tony’s heart, he was positive that it would have stopped at those words and the emotion he could hear in them.

He had always known that Winter and James had made a vow to protect Tony from whatever threat was posed to him in exchange for Howard freeing them. But to know that they felt so guilty at not being able to stop him from being kidnapped? It made his soul hurt to think about.

“Hey,” Tony whispered, cupping James’s cheeks with his hands and forcing him to look upright. “You did protect me.” When James opened his mouth to argue, Tony continued without giving him the opportunity. “I was the one who insisted I would be fine with Rhodey and the military here. That’s on me and the US government, not you.”

James pursed his lips and Tony knew that he had won; neither he nor Winter were fans of the government after they had left him to be an attack dog for Hydra until Howard had found him and removed the trigger words from his head; leaving behind only the personality they had created.

“You saved me,” Tony reminded him. “And… I gotta admit, seeing Winter bursting in with guns blazing was more than a little hot,” he purred, pressing the lower half of his body against James’s. 

He wasn’t hard, wasn’t even close, but his words got the desired affect from James and brought him out of his melancholy. His eyes darkened a fraction, a sure sign that Winter was still close to the surface, and Tony felt those strong hands land on his hips, pulling him closer.

Neither of them spoke for a while as they stood there, taking comfort in each other while the fire of the Ten Rings’s camp burned behind him.

After what felt like an age, Tony pressed a kiss against James’s cheek and took a minute step back. “Come on, _Soldat_. Let’s get home so I can have a shower and thank you properly.”

*

**Author's Note:**

> malen'kiy narushitel' spokoystviya - Little troublemaker


End file.
